Peter Tobin
In early September, Pathway Yoga, a well-established west-end studio, will vacate its Westboro facility and settle into new space at The Church of The Ascension on Echo Drive near Graham Avenue.
Pathway had been looking for months to find a suitable home after rents in its pricey Westboro location became unsustainable for the non-profit enterprise. The search came to fruition recently when Barbara Young of Pathway contacted Pastor Victoria Scott at Ascension Church. The arrangement has advantages for both the yoga studio and the church-reasonable rent for the former and a source of revenue for the latter.
Pathway Yoga will relocated its popular Westboro yoga studio to space within The Church of the Acesnsion by early September. Photo by Peter Tobin
Pathway teaches the Iyengar method, a style of yoga established by B.K.S. Iyengar. Born in 1918, the famed teacher and innovator died in Pune, India in 2014. According to Wikipedia, Iyengar has been credited with having popularized yoga, first in India and then in the west. The world-renowned violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, called .Iyengar his best violin teacher. “He is the first to teach me how to use my body,” Menuhin stated.
For many of us, a chance encounter or a seemingly inconsequential event sends us along a journey we could neither have anticipated nor planned. For Barbara Young, founder and lead teacher at Pathway Yoga, it came as a recommendation by her doctor to practise Iyengar Yoga to enhance her rehabilitation from an injury.
In a recent interview with The Mainstreeter, Young explained that her discovery of Iyengar felt like she had found ‘home’. That sense of being in the right place convinced her to become a yoga teacher, and she began as a student, as all Iyengar teachers do. Young achieved her Level 1 certificate in 2000, and four years later she travelled to Pune, India for advanced practice and learning. It was the first of what was to become seven such study trips to Pune, the most recent in 2018. At the Iyengar Institute, she was taught by various members of the Iyengar family including BKS Iyengar himself. After a three-year period of apprenticeship in Canada, Barbara received certification by a panel of senior Canadian teachers. She has taught Iyengar Yoga in Ottawa since moving here in 2001, and she has a close connection to Old Ottawa East as her son Dan and three grandchildren live in the community.
According to Young, Pathway Yoga meets its students where they are at, young or old, flexible or a bit less so. The postures are adapted to fit the individual rather than having the student struggle to perfect a difficult pose. The focus is on bringing balance and well being at all levels – physical, mental and emotional.
Pathway’s team of seven instructors plan to offer classes Monday to Saturday with two to three classes offered most days at different times.
